American Zen: A Brief History (Part I.)

~

“Originally I came to this land
To rescue the deluded by transmitting the Dharma.
One flower will open with five petals
And the fruit will ripen by itself.”[1]

~ Bodhidharma (on the transmission of Zen to China in the fifth century)

From India to China in the fifth century C.E. and then from China to Korea and Japan in the 12th century, various cultures and societies left their mark on Zen Buddhism.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Zen travelled across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the United States through Asian immigrants.[3] Initially, Zen sat and waited, winning little attention from American mainstream culture. But the situation drastically changed after America’s involvement in World War II bound together Japanese and American cultures and interests.

Following the War, Zen (Ch’an in China) Buddhism acquired a foothold in the United States. It was during the post-WWII era that teachers, writers and philosophers such as D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts, brought the practice of Zen to American baby boomers, experimenting with theologies and narratives unfamiliar to the Western world during the counter-cultural Beat Movement.

Zen’s fusion with an open capitalistic society allowed Zen to shed much of its traditional discipline and patriarchal tones and to become more accessible to the American public.[4] Through America, Zen interacted with Judaism, Christianity, Sufism and various schools of Buddhism, as well as contact with the subtle differences Zen had taken in Korea, Japan, China and Vietnam.[5]

Secularism, democratic principles, feminism, environmentalism and social equality also profoundly shaped Zen. New influences and interactions allowed for western interpretation, both intellectual and religious, to enrich and diversify the Zen experience. Politically, Zen also had much in common with secularism and America’s infatuation with freedom, liberty and inalienable rights.[6]

These surface-level parallels between Zen and secular Americans served as avenues for increased connection and cultural digestion. Whereas Buddhism remained a strange, nihilistic Asian tradition throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, today, more than one in eight individuals has reported close contact with the Buddha’s teaching.[7]

“When Bodhidharma came to China, he became the first Patriarch of Zen. As the result of a “marriage” between Vipassana-style Indian meditation and Chinese Taoism, Zen appeared. Now it has come to the West and what is already here? Christianity, Judaism and so forth. When Zen gets “married” to one of these traditions, a new style of Buddhism will appear. Perhaps there will be a woman Matriarch and all Dharma transmission would go only from one woman to woman. Why not? So everyone, you must create American Buddhism.”[8]

While American Zen has yet to solidify, there is no doubt that Zen has been transformed. America had never experienced anything like Zen, while Zen had never expanded into an arena quite like the United States. The intermingling of the two integrated a great deal of Eastern meditative insight with Western science (quantum physics, neuroscience and the increasing influence of psychology) and led to the formation of new avenues of understanding of Buddhist material.[9]

While the arrival of Zen on American shores had ramifications for American culture, American culture caused the transformation of the teachings of Zen and spurred the growth of American Zen out of its Chinese and, particularly, Japanese heritage. When one examined the Beat Movement of the 1950s and also, the principle drivers behind the “Zen Boom,” D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts, one gleaned key foundational pillars of Americanized Zen: the emphasis on laity, intellectual understanding and engaged social Buddhism.

I: Buddhism and the Foundation of Zen

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha,[11] lived and taught in present-day India in the sixth century B.C.E. The Buddha had lead many lives; he was a prince, a husband, a father, a beggar, a lover and a lonesome traveler. After more than six years of seeking, the Buddha attained enlightenment while he meditated under a Bodhi Tree.[12]

The foundation of the Buddha Dharma,[13] consisted of the Four Noble truths and the observance of the Eightfold Path as a prescription for samsara.[14] According to the Four Noble Truths, (I) life is suffering, (II) you, through attachment and desire, are the cause of suffering, (III) liberation from suffering is possible and (IV) you can achieve liberation through the observance of the Middle Way, or the Eightfold Path.[15]

The Eightfold Path itself was broken into the three categories of wisdom, ethical conduct and mental development. Through diligent practice, meditation and mindfulness, one broke free from the cycles of suffering bound within conditioned, subjective existence. Visually, one viewed the Middle Way teachings as an eight-spoke wheel.

In order for the wheel to spin properly, the Buddhist practitioner remained aware of all eight spokes: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Practiced within the Buddhist view of ultimate reality, that all is impermanent and within an infinite, unknowable universe, one moved toward a state of Nirvana, the extinction of concepts and distinctions.[16]

There were three principles that encapsulated the Buddha’s teachings: impermanence, non-self and Nirvana. They functioned as a seal of Buddhist authenticity for a given teaching. When one looked deeply into life he or she would see that everything is impermanent and that life is not static but constantly changing.[17] Through the observation of impermanence, one found the idea of non-self; that, within the one, lay all of the conditions that gave rise to its manifestation.

For example, if one examined a flower through the eyes of the Buddha, he would see not the individual flower but the sun, soil, water, minerals, pollen, insects, etc., that allowed the flower to manifest. One was empty of self and at the same time, that emptiness allowed him or her to be a reflection of everything.[18]

It was with this knowledge that suffering disappeared. Nirvana, as stated above, was equated with “extinction.” Seeing that all resided within the one and that life naturally sprang forth from death or empty space, one dwelled in the notion of no-birth and no-death.[19]

What the Buddha taught was radical: each individual held the key to his or her salvation through mental practice, non-judgmental acceptance of the present moment[20] and the examination of the self.[21] Buddha’s final words served as the crux of his teaching, as well as the foundation of Zen:

“All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation.”[22]

Zen was a school of the Mahayana branch of Buddhism that cut to the elemental core of the Buddha’s sayings and his emphasis on the inherent Buddha nature[23] that resided in all sentient beings.

A Chinese Zen koan stated, “If you meet the Buddha on the path, kill him!”[24]; the koan echoed the true teachings of the Buddha, that each individual “be a light unto himself.”[25]

Though the Buddha or master may have pointed toward The Way [26], he or she was not the way itself. The old masters said that the practitioner himself was Zen: “Zen is that which makes you ask the question…the answer is no other than the questioner himself.”[27] An old Chinese Zen proverb stated that though the master points toward the moon, his hand was not the way itself.

It was up to the practitioner to realize the core, not to see the pointing finger as the moon but to know the moon for what it was.[28]

Etymologically, the term “Zen,” is an abbreviation of the Japanese word, “Zazen,” which was translated from Chinese “Ch’an.” Both stemmed from the Sanskrit term, “Dhyana,” which translates as “meditation.”[29]

In essence, Zen was the liberation from time, thought, and subject—and thus represented a surrender to an incomprehensible vastness free from distinction (no-birth & no-death).

The way was through direct experience in a plane beyond knowing and not knowing; direct experience was all-important. Through Zen, one sought the genuine enlightenment experience of the Buddha—not through the teachings, which only pointed the way but through contact with the “Self.” [30]

Zen, then, was a way of authentically living the life of the Buddha—seeing through the façades one artificially created and then powerfully coming to an indescribable realization of “Absolute Self.”[31]

One’s own experience defined the end result: he or she was always a Buddha. No teaching on its own could ever teach being a Buddha—one had to realize Buddha-hood for himself through direct, personal experience.[32] The master was the only one who could show the disciple the door and it was up to the disciple whether or not she could open it.

One could see an example of direct experience teaching through the questions of a Chinese master concerning a stick:

“If you call this a stick, you touch (you affirm). When you do not call this stick ‘a stick,’ you turn against (deny or negate). So this stick—you cannot call it a stick, nor can you call it not a stick. So neither affirmation nor negation will do. Without negating, without asserting, make a statement!”

What to do? While many of the monks pondered the given conundrum, one disciple walked up to the master, snatched the stick and broke it in two! The action sufficed—it was authentic, it did not negate or assert, it was original and it was spontaneous. For the individual monk, it was an instance of direct experience—it was Zen.[33]

A similar example could be seen in the teaching of Ma-tsu, who one day asked his followers to paint a picture of himself in his original, true nature. The monks drew but each failed to illustrate the master’s essence.

One monk who had remained still, suddenly jumped forward and completed a somersault. The master bowed and told his followers that the monk had just shown the group the master’s true nature.[34]

As stated before, the manifestation of Zen was simply a way of being that reflected one’s personal experience. In the given examples, the teachings disappeared and the innate nature within the monks sprung forward, manifesting in the form of a response that was purely free—void of any distinction, conceptualization or rationalization.[35]

Zen traced its beginnings to the Buddha’s “Flower Sermon,” in which the Buddha held up a flower in front of a large gathering of his followers. The Buddha’s disciple, Mahakasyapa, smiled and was subsequently enlightened. Though this legend was simple, it encapsulated the foundational block of Zen philosophy: falling into ordinary mind. The practitioner who pierced through the mind and dwelled in ultimate reality[39] uncovered his inherent Buddha nature.

In the late fifth century ,the first Zen Patriarch, Bodhidharma, crossed the mountains of Northern India into present-day China. Bodhidharma brought the essence of the Indian Buddhist tradition along with the teaching that one should cultivate a disciplined mind free from judgment, conceptualization or attachment through the two gates, “entrance by conduct”[40] and “entrance by reason.”[41]

From Bodhidharma, Zen spread throughout China and onto the shores of Japan, Korea and Vietnam, by the 12th Century C.E.[42] Within centuries of Zen’s second exportation throughout Eastern and Southern Asia, the Five Houses and Seven schools of Ch’an and the three main lineages of Zen—Soto, Rinzai, and Obaku—emerged. (Note: These schools were created in retrospect: “the actuality was not so tidy…people and ideas often moved freely across sectarian lines.”)[43]

“Emperor Wu of Lian asked the great master Bodhidharma,
‘What is the main point of this holy teaching?’
‘Vast emptiness, nothing holy,’ said Bodhidharma
‘Who are you, standing in front of me?’ asked the Emperor.
‘I do not know,’ said Bodhidharma
The emperor didn’t understand. Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River and went to the kingdom of Wei.”[46]

The idea was to imprint and unravel Zen psychology in the mind of the prospective monk. In other words, when the problem within the koan was grasped (experienced may be a better term), the master’s mind was understood.[47] The abstract, illogical and absurd koan could not be cracked by the linear intellect, “You are looking only at the words!” cried masters, staring down upon despondent monks. Zen was direct experience, “not contemplation!” Words and language could not convey the truth of reality.

The practitioner could only reach such heights (and depths) through his or her own experience and koans served this purpose. The koan was also a bridge between master and close-minded disciple. One could witness the intention of the koan in a contemporary Roshi’s[48] statement, “Koans don’t support the interior decoration project; they demolish the walls.”[49]The imagery summed up the koan system—from a closed cell in which everything was conceptual, fixed, definable and linear, to the sudden realization of vastness, impermanence and interconnectedness. It became known in Japanese as satori—a brief extinction of thought and then, suddenly, the view beyond the fallen walls.[50]

In Asia, Zen remained a teaching practiced within communities of devoted monks. Rigorous discipline, physical reprimand and intense fasting were also integral to the process.[51] Though laymen practiced Zen, it was seen primarily as a monastic tradition. After achieving (multiple) satori, many newly graduated monks went out into the wilderness to live a life of solitude.

Also, women were not considered part of Asian Zen fabric. These examples contrast sharply with what Zen had become (and is becoming) in the United States. In the U.S., there was far greater emphasis on lay practice, involvement in social and environmental issues, far less discipline and a growing use of science as a form of teaching.[52]

The flowering of Zen that began in the United States during the Beat movement of the 1950s and particularly, under the guidance of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, was responsible for the growth of what many people call today, American Zen.

NOTES:
[1] The “Flowering” of Zen (Ch’an) in China occurred over a period of roughly two hundred years following the death of Bodhidharma. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, Ch’an had become far and away the most popular form of Buddhism in China. Five schools or petals, rose out of the Bodhidharma’s teachings. What are the implications for budding Zen in America?
[2] Cover: The Enso is the Zen symbol for infinity, void and enlightenment.
[3] Kenneth Kraft, Zen Tradition and Transition: A Sourcebook by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars, Grove Press, New York, N.Y. (1988)
[4] Zen is neither a religion nor a philosophy but rather a means of realizing one’s true Buddha-nature through direct experience.
[5] Kenneth Kraft, Zen Tradition and Transition: A Source Book by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars p. 184-185. Grove Press, New York, N.Y. (1988); There are three main classifications of Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, all of which contain hundreds of schools, sub-schools, sects and movements.
[6] Note: Some have labeled interest in Zen as part of a growing movement in American “secular spirituality.” (Carl Bielefeldt, Stanford Buddhist Center, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. Episode no. 445 July 6, 2001)
[7] Carl Bielefeldt, Stanford Buddhist Center, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, episode no. 445. (July 6, 2001)
[8] Seung Sahn, A Time for Complete Transformation, p. 2, Primary Point, 3:2. (June 1986)
[9] Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom, Morgan Road Books. New York, N.Y. (2005)
[10] In the words of D.T. Suzuki, “Buddhism really means the doctrine of enlightenment” and the path toward the cessation of suffering (The Awakening of Zen p. 23).
[11] Buddha (“The enlightened one”) comes from the word “Budh,” which means, “to wake up.”
[12] PBS Documentary, “The Buddha”: During the Buddha’s enlightenment, Mara, the lord of desire, as well as a host of demons, thoroughly tested the Buddha. The Buddha’s memories, women, money, illusions and delusions, all desirous objects and titles—the fruits of the delusional mind—were placed in front of the Buddha. When Mara asked Buddha how he would prove his enlightenment, the Buddha simply and profoundly touched the earth. The action symbolized Buddha’s experience—which was just that—beyond words and conceptualizations. The proof of his enlightenment lay within.
[13] Dharma is synonymous with teaching or, “way of the Buddha.”
[14] Samsara is equated with suffering, or continuous flowing—subject to birth, death and the afflictions of the mind. It is important to note, that samsara refers to an affliction of the delusional mind, subject to desire and loyal to misleading subjective perceptions. Nirvana or “extinction,” is the end of suffering. If one were to imagine a small, well-defined circle as the self, Nirvana is the eraser of the circumference. The result: the subject becomes no-subject and he is thus nothing and, subsequently, everything.
[15] Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within, p. 55. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (1998)
[16] Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here, p. 110 – 111. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (2001)
[17] On a molecular-biological level, humans inhabit an entirely new body every seven years. (Nicholas Wade, Your Body is Younger Than You Think, New York Times. August 2, 2005)
[18] Many western Buddhists point to scientific evidence such as a law in physics that says energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred. The Zen statement that one is nothing and yet everything—and that there is no-birth and no-death, can be compared to this scientific law.
[19] Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here p. 103 – 112. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (2001). One can also find more in Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, Zen Keys; Buddhists see the world as one, in contrast to the conventional Western view of categorizing things into ‘good’ and ‘bad.’ “Without genuine insight, so called moral perfection is uninformed and hollow” (Kenneth Kraft, Zen Tradition and Transition, p. 80-81).
[20] “The Buddha said, ‘The past no longer exists, and the future is not here. There is only a single moment in which we can be alive…being present in the here and now is our practice,’” master Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here, p. 26.
[21] Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within, p. 52 Shambhala Publications, Boston Mass. (1998)
[22] The Buddha’s last words to his disciples touch on impermanence as well as the need for each individual to be a “light unto himself.”
[23] Zen Master Bankei taught Buddha-nature or Buddha-mind as inherent within each being. Buddha-nature is of “one substance” and is the same among contemporaries as past Buddhas without any difference. Like the one water of the vast ocean, Buddha-nature is the substance (the water) that binds us. Those who are caught in the mirage of the waves: birth and death, good and bad, right and wrong, (the delusional) pass through life not knowing their true nature (Peter Haskel, Bankei Zen, p. 77–78 Grove, New York. (1984)
[24] Blue Cliff Record
[25] Buddha quote
[26] “The Way” is also given as “The Tao,” highlighting the deep connection between Bodhidharma’s teachings and Taoism: two philosophies that share core characteristics. Lao Tzu described the Tao in the Tao Te Ching: “Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard…above, it isn’t bright. Below, it isn’t dark…approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end. You can’t know it but you can be it” (Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, p.14). On the intermixing of Taoism and Zen and the influential effect Taoism had on the formative years of Zen, Mitchell writes, “The most essential preparation for my work (the translation of the Tao Te Ching) was a fourteen-years-long course of Zen training, which brought me face to face with Lao Tzu’s true disciples and heirs, the early Chinese Zen Masters.”
[27] D.T. Suzuki, What is Zen, p. 1, Perenial Library, Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco. (1972)
[28] “The finger pointing to the moon” is a Zen proverb warning the practitioner not to become attached to the teaching. In other words, “If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” ~ Chuang-tzu
[29] D.T. Suzuki, The Awakening of Zen, p. 21. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (1987)
[30] D.T. Suzuki, The Awakening of Zen, p. 90-91. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (1987)
[31] The Self, which can be described as “Absolute,” divine or true Self, is who an individual is below the ego and the world it perceives. The term “no-self” is thus a denial of the superficial ego-self as a means of connecting with the Absolute Self. The Absolute Self is synonymous with Buddha-nature. One can get a much deeper understanding of the Self through an example given in D.T. Suzuki’s work: “The master said: The Buddha-nature (or Absolute Self) in its purity remains serene from the first and shows no movement whatever. It is free of all categories such as being and non-being, long and short, grasping and giving up, purity and defilement. It stands by itself in tranquility.” (The Awakening of Zen, p. 94). Rather than a being, the Self can be viewed as clear awareness.
[32] Before passing away, the Buddha said, “Don’t make statues of me because that will give a wrong impression to people…” (Osho Rajneesh, Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror p. 11-12, 1989). Hence, for hundreds of years, footprints in the sand became the symbol of the Buddha, before his final words were shunned and statues were made in his “honor.”
[33] D.T. Suzuki, The Awakening of Zen, p. 92-93. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (1987)
[34] Ma-tsu (Baso) 709-788 C.E.
[35] On his deathbed, a Zen master was asked by his disciples for a final phrase to sum up his life’s teachings. He responded, “Attention, attention, attention!” D.T. Suzuki elaborates on the quote when he writes, “The only thing that is needed is to keep the eye wide open so that unnecessary ingredients do not obscure the reality itself…when one’s inner urge is so strong and imperative there is no time or room left for deliberation” (What is Zen, ix).
[36] D.T. Suzuki, The Awakening of Zen, p. 21-23. Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (1987); The three disciplines of Buddhism: 1. The moral Precepts 2. Jhana (Zen or Meditation) 3.Prajna.
[37] A person who is governed by his thoughts and ego—who remains out of the present moment—is deemed unconscious, delusional, dreaming or asleep.
[38] Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here p. 111, Shambhala Publications, Boston, Mass. (2001); Ultimate reality is beyond knowing and not knowing. Often, it is compared with the infinite nature of the sky. The Buddha once said, “In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” Man claims to know but this knowing is delusional in the backdrop of infinity; Enlightenment in Zen is (the achievement of) freedom within the vastness of infinite reality. An enlightened mind mirrors the infinite: spontaneous, open, clear. It is simple and yet, like Zen itself, utterly indescribable. A master wrote, “Enlightenment is basically not a tree/And the clear mirror is not a stand./Fundamentally there is not a single thing—/Where can dust collect” (Hui-neng, 6th Zen Patriarch in China 638-713, Transmission of the Light, Thomas Cleary, p. 140). Through abstraction the master nullified the notion of subject and object (dualism) or the emphasis of one over the other. Ultimately he rests his description in “thus-ness:” nothing and everything as experienced in the present moment.
[40] Entrance by conduct signifies the action path to attaining enlightenment, Bodhidharma gave four practices: the practice requiting animosity, accepting one’s circumstances, craving nothing and being in accord with the Dharma; Bodhidharma was a legendary figure with limited proof of existence outside of his writings.
[41] Foster & Shoemaker, The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, The Ecco Press, New York. (1996); Entrance by reason was founded in meditation (wall-gazing/contemplation in Bodhidharma’s time). Through reason, one entered effortlessly into a state of total interconnectedness—no distinction, no self, no perception.
[42] Foster & Shoemaker, The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, Introduction, The Ecco Press, New York. (1996)
[43] Foster & Shoemaker, The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader, Introduction, The Ecco Press, New York. (1996)
[44] A koan is generally a response given from a master to his disciple with the aim of imparting his state of mind on the disciple. These sayings are passed down over hundreds of years. Intense meditation on a koan is a doorway to enlightenment; Roshi John Tarrant wrote, “They (the Masters) found a way to talk down through the centuries, a language that helps ‘unshape’ what I see so that I can see that it is the first day of the world” (Zenosaurus, “Zen 2.0: The Zenosaurus Course in Koans 3.1, The great Koan “No.”)
[45] D.T. Suzuki, The Zen Koan as a means of Attaining Enlightenment, p. 80, Rider & Company. (1950)
[46] John Tarrant, Bring Me the Rhinoceros, p. 11, Shambhala Publications Inc, Boston Mass; Later on, the Emperor inquired of his advisor, Duke Zhi, about his exchange with Bodhidharma. Once learning who Bodhidharma was (the Bodhisattva of Compassion) the Emperor felt regret and attempted to send messengers to fetch him. Duke Zhi responded, “Your majesty, even if everyone in the kingdom went after him he wouldn’t return.” The emperor would later respond, “I met him but didn’t meet him.” These words were written on his grave. There is another aspect to the koan not stated above. In addition, the Emperor asked, “I have funded many monasteries; what merit have I earned?” “No merit, said Bodhidharma.” Thus, the lines, No Merit, ‘Vast emptiness, nothing holy,’ and I don’t know, are three foundational statements contemplated by monks and lay practitioners alike that underline the teaching of Zen.
[47] D.T. Suzuki, The Zen Koan as a means of Attaining Enlightenment, p. 81, Rider & Company. (1950)
[48] Roshi is a Japanese word, meaning “ old teacher” or “master.” He or she has undergone rigorous training—passing through the stage of Sensei—to the level of master. While the term signifies various levels of attainment or teaching ability in Japanese and Chinese culture (Sifu in Chinese), in the United States, Roshi connotes the mythic status of “Zen Master.”
[49] John Tarrant, Bring Me the Rhinoceros, p. 3, Shambhala Publications Inc., Boston Mass.(2008)
[50] Satori is a Japanese Zen term that is equated with sudden and brief enlightenment.
[51] Kenneth Kraft, Zen Tradition and Transition: A Sourcebook by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars, Grove Press, New York, N.Y. (1988)
[52] Kenneth Kraft, Zen Tradition and Transition: A Sourcebook by Contemporary Zen Masters and Scholars, Grove Press, New York, N.Y. (1988)

About Don Dianda

Don Dianda is the author of “See for your Self: Zen Mindfulness for the Next Generation.” Through meditation, daily mindfulness practice, and individual koan work, Dianda seeks to shed light on the inherently deep connection one can have with the experience of this life as well as the world one moves through. Stepping into the now and recognizing the movements within the mind is where the path begins… See more at: http://redwoodzen.blogspot.com/

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